Carton for the packing of fragile articles



NOV 15, 1955 D, s. MaCKENzlE 2,723,795

CARTON FOR THE PACKING OF FRAGILE ARTICLES B 5 lorney Nov. 15, 1955 D- S. MaCKENZlE CARTON FOR THE PACKING OF FRAGILE ARTICLES Filed Jan. 25, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. l5, 1955 D. S. Mac KE NZIE CARTON FOR THE PACKING OF' FRAGILE ARTICLES Filed Jan. 25, 1952 '.5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Inventor A itorney United States Patent O CARTON FOR THE PACKING GF FRAGILE ARTCLES Douglas Stuart MacKenzie, Cricklewood, London, England Application January 25, 1952, Serial No. 268,215

Claims priority, application Great Britain January 30, 1951 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-37) This invention relates to an improved carton for the packing of fragile articles such as electric lamps and like bulbous articles, which for the sake of convenience will be referred to hereinafter as lamps, and it has for its object to provide an inexpensive carton of simple construction which can be folded flat when not required for use, and to this end a carton according to this invention is made of stiff paper, cardboard or the like, said carton being, when in use, of regular polygonal, preferably square, transverse cross sectional shape, the walls thereof adjacent each corner being scored and cut at two spaced positions or levels so that portions thereof may be pressed inwardly, whereby a lamp may be supported and held between the inwardly pressed portions at one position or level and the inwardly pressed portions at the other position or level, it being necessary to press some of said portions outwardly again before the lamp can be freely removed from the carton.

A carton according to lthis invention is preferably made from a single rectangular blank of stiff paper, cardboard or the like folded into the required shape with the ends thereof joined together, the blank being scored and cut to provide the portions which can be pressed inwardly and outwardly.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l illustrates a blank for a carton, according to this invention,

Figure 2 is a side perspective view of a made-up carton,

Figure 3 is a perspective View from above of a madeup carton,

Figure 4 is a plan view of the carton shown in Figures 2 and 3,

Figure 5 is a section on the line V--V of Figure 4, showing a lamp supported in the carton and,

Figure 6 is a fragmentary underneath perspective view of the carton shown in Figures 2 to 5 In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings the carton is of square transverse cross-sectional shape being formed from a blank 1 of stiif paper (Figure 1) slightly greater in length than four times the width of a side of the carton so as to allow overlapping end portions 1x which can be secured together. The blank 1 is provided nearer one longer edge than the other with two spaced rows of equally spaced cuts 2, parallel to each other and to the longer edges of the blank, the cuts being so formed that when the blank is folded into shape each cut will be equally divided by a corner fold or crease 3 of the blank.

Each cut 2 forms the base of an isosceles triangle the other two sides of which are formed by scoring the blank, as at 4, the apex of the triangle lying on a corner fold or crease 3 of the carton. Preferably, however, the apex of the triangle is in fact cut oi by forming a small cross ICC cut 5 in the blank parallel to the cut 2 forming the base of the triangle. The scoring of the blank to produce the triangles is effected on either side of the band 6 produced by the parallel rows of cuts 2.

When the blank 1 is folded into shape to form a carton the corner portions 7 formed by cutting and scoring the blank can be pressed inwardly. In practice the corner portions 7 at one position or level of the carton are pressed in first, a lamp 8 (Figure 5) is inserted in the carton until the bulbous end thereof rests on said corner portions and finally the corner portions at the other position or level of the carton are pressed in so that the bulbous portion of the lamp is firmly supported and held on and between the corner portions 7 at the two levels.

Before the lamp can be removed from the carton some of the corner portions 7 at one level must firstly be pressed outwardly. When the carton is not required for use all the corner portions 7 can be pressed outwardly and the carton can then be pressed flat. A plurality of cartons can therefore be packed in a compact manner.

The ends of the carton are open at one end, preferably that farthest from the rows of cuts, the sides of the carton may be scored or creased as shown at 9 in Figure 1 so that the end portion 10 of one side thereof may be pressed inwardly to form a shoulder extending across the end of the carton, this shoulder being used to indicate the contents of the carton, for example by marking on it the voltage, wattage and nature of a lamp.

I claim:

A carton for the packing of electric lamps and like bulbous articles, said carton comprising a single elongated rectangular blank of stiif material such as cardboard scored transversely at least three times, folded along said scorings and having its shorter sides overlapped and secured together, whereby the carton in use is of regular geometrical shape in transverse cross section, said blank being provided with two rows of equally spaced cuts arranged in opposing pairs along the opposite sides of a strip of the blank extending longitudinally thereof, said cuts being straight and parallel to each other and to the longer side edges of the blank and each being equally divided by a transverse scoring, said blank also being provided with a pair of straight scorings extending angularly from the opposite ends of each of said cuts towards a common point on the transverse scoring dividing the cut, the angular scorings of each opposed pair of cuts extending away from said strip, whereby the carton when folded into shape ready for use is formed at each of its corner with two spaced portions which can be deformed by pressing them inwardly to provide means for engaging a bulbous article in the carton at spaced points on either side of the greatest diameter of the article the arrangement being such that with all such corner portions pressed in the carton is substantially rigid and the bulbous article is firmly held between the corner portions in spaced relationship with the sides of the carton until such time as some of the corner portions are pressed outwardly again.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,282,656 Tiede Oct. 22, 1918 1,985,075 Bird Dec. 18, 1934 2,438,879 Whitehead Mar. 30, 1948 2,603,403 Thompson July 15, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 203,953 Great Britain Sept. 20, 1923 

